# What science fiction stories could be made into good low budget movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816 "2012-05-13T23:48:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/1 "2012-05-13T23:48:09Z")
What science fiction stories you have read that you think would work well as the basis for a low budget movie? By “low budget” I mean a budget that calls for a largely unknown/new cast or stars willing to work for a percentage, and a relatively modest special effects budget. Say we’re talking a 5-10 million dollar total production budget. What science fiction stories have you have read that you think could be filmed as movies within these economic parameters? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/2 "2012-05-13T23:50:59Z")
Nightfall. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/3 "2012-05-13T23:55:45Z")
Inconstant Moon - Possibly the greatest SF story to feature just some basic science and a love story. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/4 "2012-05-14T00:42:21Z")
Fritz Leiber’s _The Big Time_ won the Hugo in 1958. Forget “low budget movie.” It could have been made into a high-quality TV feature at that time. One set, a small cast, good costumes–and a bit of puppetry for one character–make it almost stageworthy… "No Great Magic’–also set in the Change War & using some of the same characters–would also be quite do-able. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/5 "2012-05-14T00:51:44Z")
Telempath. Emergence. Puppet Masters. The problem being that most novels are going to have WAY too much plot to fit into just one movie. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/6 "2012-05-14T00:54:02Z")
I’m reading Ray Bradbury’s _October Country_ again. It should fit the requirements. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/7 "2012-05-14T00:56:36Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I’m reading Ray Bradbury’s _October Country_ again. It should fit the requirements. That’s a short-story collection. Might make for series of _Twilight Zone_ or _Amazing Stories_ or _Outer Limits_ or _Tales from the Darkside_ segments . . . if anybody’s doing that format of show any more . . . ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/8 "2012-05-14T01:07:55Z")
Harlan Ellison has two gripping stories which fit: - [‘I have no mouth and I must scream’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream) - [‘A Boy and His Dog’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Boy_and_His_Dog) (I think this one has been filmed already though) ---
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/9 "2012-05-14T01:10:12Z")
I’d say The Screwfly Solution. You wouldn’t need to show the aliens directly in this story, which would save you on SFX. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/10 "2012-05-14T01:11:03Z")
[“Reason”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_(Asimov)) by Isaac Asimov. Heinlein’s _The Puppet Masters_ has already been filmed, and most people complained more about the script than about the SFX. Larry Niven’s teleportation stories. Or his Gil Hamilton stories. _The Patchwork Girl_ would be too expensive, but the organlegger stories could be done on a fairly modest budget. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/11 "2012-05-14T01:32:13Z")
_Donnie Darko_ (the original theatrical cut) was produced for $4.5M using a combination of newcomers (Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone) and industry character actors willing to work for scale (Holmes Osborne, Mary McDonnell, Beth Grant). The special effects were primarily some inexpensive practical effects with dark lighting and quick cutting, and the one major CGI rendering (the floating tentacle that was so impressive in 1989’s _The Abyss_). So you have a baseline there to consider. For practical purposes, CGI rendering has become inexpensive; it is the labor to perform the artistic work to make it look realistic (or in the case of a film like _Avatar_, suitably alien). WETA actually went to the effort to create an automated animation system for mass battles so that individual creatures and effects didn’t have to be created individually. It is the closeup effects and interaction with people that makes CGI expensive and laborious. In any case, aside from high dollar star salaries, a large amount of the cost of producing a film (separate from marketing it) is in the post-production. If you actually look at the shooting budgets for most blockbuster films, you would be astounded for how little they actually get to do filming. All of the editing, and meetings, and more meetings, and screening, and more meetings, et cetera…there are millions of dollars spent there on a high value “product” that a low budget film doesn’t generally endure. As for science fiction stories for low budget films, the best adaptations are long short stories or short novellas, because they don’t require trimming. Something like _The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress_ or _Methuselah’s Children_ is far too long and convoluted to make a movie. Something like _Gulf_ or _The Door Into Summer_ would be more possible, although the mangling of _The Puppet Masters_ (which is really a pretty straightforward alien invasion story that has been done many ways since the novel was first published) suggests that nothing can be too simple for a major film studio to seriously fuck up. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/12 "2012-05-14T01:53:48Z")
Roger Zelazny’s “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” Philip K. Dick’s _The Man in the High Castle_ Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth’s _The Space Merchant_ A. J. Deutsch’s “A Subway Named Mobius” ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/13 "2012-05-14T02:30:41Z")
_Flower’s for Algernon_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/14 "2012-05-14T02:40:44Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > _Flower’s for Algernon_ [Been done.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charly) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/15 "2012-05-14T02:49:55Z")
> [@glee](#): > > - [‘A Boy and His Dog’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Boy_and_His_Dog) (I think this one has been filmed already though) Yes, Jason Robards. Outstanding. “Send them to the farm.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/16 "2012-05-14T02:50:55Z")
“Inconstant Moon” was also made into an episode of the 90s version of _The Outer Limits_ . Lawrence Watt-Evans’s “Why I Left Harry’s All-night Hamburgers” would make a great TV episode. Just some make-up effects; have the main character narrate but not be actually shown until the end. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/17 "2012-05-14T02:54:56Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Been done.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charly) The OP didn’t specify that it hadn’t been filmed before. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/18 "2012-05-14T03:10:40Z")
“Spice Pogrom” by Connie Willis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/19 "2012-05-14T05:25:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Lawrence Watt-Evans’s “Why I Left Harry’s All-night Hamburgers” would make a great TV episode. Just some make-up effects; have the main character narrate but not be actually shown until the end. Why would you need to hide the main character? He’s a normal-looking human. In fact, most of the characters are just normal-looking humans, with at most funny clothes. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816/20 "2012-05-14T05:56:07Z")
John M. Ford’s _Mandalay_, one of his _Alternities_ stories, all too few in number. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-science-fiction-stories-could-be-made-into-good-low-budget-movies/621816.md?page=2)